What is Neuropsychiatry?

Neuropsychiatry is a field of medicine that deals with mental disorders caused through diseases of the nervous system. The field is a combination of neurology and psychiatry, two disciplines linked by the common training given to physicians in both fields. Neuropsychiatry assumes that the brain and mind are one, and that successfully treating mental disorders depends on treating the biological cause. Despite increasing support in the medical field for neuropsychiatry, many physicians and medical researchers still believe that neurology and psychology should remain separate.

The modern concept of neuropsychiatry was developed in the early 2000s through a series of articles that appeared in prominent neurology and psychiatry periodicals. The authors of these articles called for combining psychiatry and neurology into a single field. Though specific opinions varied among authors, a common theme was that due to the advances in medical technology over the past century, medical research has proved a strong link between the brain and the mind. Another argument that appeared in multiple articles was that the two disciplines were already linked due to the common training both specialties provided to physicians.

Proponents of neuropsychiatry claim that a single discipline would provide many benefits to patients suffering mental disorders. For example, advances in medical treatment would appear faster if research focused solely on the neurological causes of mental illness. Also, patients suffering from mental illness would have less confusion about the causes of their disease. A side benefit, proponents claim, would be that societal stigma of those with a mental illness would lessen if mental illness was classified as a physical disorder.

Though neuropsychiatry focuses on treating the biological causes of mental disorders, another supposed benefit of combining neurology and psychiatry is that the process of diagnosing a mental disorder becomes much simpler. The theory is that a physician trained in both fields can identify the biological and societal factors that influence the development of mental illness. For example, eating disorders, though based in genetics, can appear due to the societal expectations for beauty displayed in television and magazines. A physician who is able to spot either of these signs can make a quicker diagnosis; the patient begins treatment as soon as possible.

Though neuropsychiatry seems promising, a large bloc of the medical community still supports the separate fields of neurology and psychiatry. The primary reason for their opposition is that even though medical science has started to close the gap between the two fields, science has not yet genetically mapped any mental illness. Neuropsychiatry can not become viable, these physicians argue, until the genetic basis of mental illness is better understood.